Sunday, April 10, 2011

Make Up Forever HD Powder Shines under the Camera Flash

And not in a good way.

By now, most of us have seen Nicole Kidman's makeup malfunction, and we've wondered if her makeup artist is looking for a new job.

It turns out the culprit is the type of powder used—Make Up For Ever HD Powder—where a lighter hand and thorough blending might have prevented Nicole from looking as though she had plunged headfirst into the flour bin.

To understand when and how this powder fails, see Wayne Goss's video below. Wayne demonstrates Make Up For Ever HD powder on one side of his face (around his right eye) compared to MUFE Super Matte Loose Powder on the other side. He finishes his video demonstration with a still photo that he takes with flash:

Even though the Make Up For Ever people designed the powder for high-definition video, it's the still photography that can make a mess of things if you don't apply lightly and blend extremely well. Photoshop can clean things up for print media, but it's unlikely the press will go to that trouble—since it seems they prefer to catch celebrities at their worst.

Here's a screen shot I captured of Wayne's finished result. Scary.

Bottom line: Since I am not stalked by the paparazzi, I don't feel a need to retire my silica powder, which I love. But I will be more cognizant of how I slap it on.

PHOTO: Nicole from hollywooddame.com. Wayne Goss captured by me directly from his video.

9 comments:

When I first saw Nicole's face with the powder, I could only imagine her horror since she is such a beautiful lady. Of course, the mind wanders of the culprit but never the product itself. This definitely puts another spin on picture and egg on Smashbox for not noticing the possibilites and not testing it's product before having a famous face uses it. Shame on Smashbox.

I'm becoming fast fan of Mr. Goss!

Thank you, Zuzu for finding the answer for us that are somewhat lazy to look to this mystery. It will make me think twice about putting on this product since there so many others out there.

I just tried this myself on a bare face. I used an iPhone and a Canon powershot (both 8 megapixels). I couldn't see anything! It's possible that the HD powder interacts poorly with certain foundations, but otherwise I could not reproduce this result with a flash camera.

I have since read that if you blend MUFE HD in really well, you won't get the face-in-the-flour-bin look. I suspect that because the powder is nearly invisible, the makeup artists were really slinging it onto the celebrities t cut down shine.

I have not stopped wearing my powder (if feels so silky), and I had no horror shots of me this past Christmas or whenever else I have had photos taken of me via flash.

it really does not look so if you blend it normal, i've experimentented. you have to put half of a powder from a packaging to get that flour powdery look, by the way i love that powder so much because it makes all my brand cosmetics stay in place all day long and looking fresh

it really does not look so if you blend it normal, i've experimentented. you have to put half of a powder from a packaging to get that flour powdery look, by the way i love that powder so much because it makes all my brand cosmetics stay in place all day long and looking fresh

I put it on my whole face to set my foundation using round flat stippling brush, very little amount for whole face. I have super oily skin. The mufe HD powder gives me fresh feeling, matte finish. don't ever use it for baking concealer. It won't blend well. It's like you just drop the powder jar to your face. Very ghostly.